Replay: Jenny Jones’ “Girls’ Night Out” Comedy Show, January 1990

Note: In January of 1990, in addition to writing about movies, I did most of the comedy coverage for the Chronicle. So when Jenny Jones came to town for a Girls Night Out comedy show, it was understood that I would write about it — until we found out two days before that they weren’t letting in men. I mentioned this to my editor and said I couldn’t go — “Unless you want me to go disguised as a woman,” and he just loved the idea. So then I had to figure out how to go about it. Now at this time, there was an amazing drag troupe known as Sluts-a-Gogo, heading by Doris Fish, and so I called and asked if Doris might do my makeup. Doris said yes — and really made the night possible.

A couple of takeaways from the experience. The first is how forgiving weight is on a man. I’m usually about ten pounds overweight, back then, when I was 30, 10 pounds at most, probably less. But dressed as a woman, I looked enormous. The other thing is how vulnerable you feel in heels.

The sad footnote to this is that Doris died of AIDS a year and a half later, and a few weeks after that Doris’s roommate “Tippi” died, who was also a brilliant performer. When I think of myself sort of blundering into what was almost certainly already a house of sorrow, it transforms the memory. It wasn’t all about me, was it? No, not at all. Already Doris, who was quite ill, had had a farewell performance at San Francisco’s Victoria Theatre.

Anyway, here’s the article, as it appeared in the Chronicle in 1990, followed by Doris’ gallant farewell appearance from the year before.